Monty

Monty Mosquito, the intense librarian at Dragon Fly Memorial Library, sustained the most damage over the course of the summer. He began to develop tears in the corners of his mouth, and his arms took quite a beating.

Gnatty

Bugsy’s assistant, Gnatty, is a simple rod puppet performed by a long, thin music-wire rod. Her wings are fastened to little springs that are stuck into her back.

Mollusk front

Here is a front view of Mollusk. His eyes are made out of ping pong balls supported by a piece of armature wire that is stuck into the foam stems.

Mollusk

Mollusk is one of my favorite puppets from Bugsy Brown: Private Fly. He’s a moving-mouth hand puppet that I slide along the front of the stage during the show. The trick with Mollusk is to move him as slowly as possible.

American Bug

I bought Bugsy’s jacket at American Girl Place in Los Angeles. It’s where all the tough flies shop. Kit’s winter coat fit Bugsy and the era perfectly.

Build-a-Bugsy

Bugsy Brown’s hat was made out of a cowboy hat that I purchased at the Build-a-Bear Workshop. I cut the brim off the hat and turned it upside down to make the hat look more like a fedora. I added a strip of felt to create a band.

Bugsy Brown 1

Bugsy Brown, like all the characters in the show, is carved out of foam. He was sanded and then painted with a mixture of acrylic paint and flock adhesive. His eyes are made out of plastic half spheres that were spray painted and covered with wire mesh.

Bugsy Puppets

Now that Swazzle’s summer puppet shows are over, I thought I’d take some time to post photos of the Bugsy Brown: Private Fly puppets, which I designed and built.

Alien at Comic Con

I wasn’t able to go to Comic Con this year, but as it turns out, I had a foam representative. The alien puppet I built last year at The Creature Shop was featured in The Jim Henson Company's Puppet Up! Uncensored demonstration. He was performed by Brian Henson in a sketch featuring Julianne Buescher; guest puppeteer Ben Browder, from Farscape; and host Patrick Bristow.